Overall assets in U.S. ETFs hit $1.35 trillion, or about 13 percent of all the money invested in long-term U.S. funds, Morningstar said.

Growing competition among top ETF providers prompted managers to cut fees across the industry last year. In October, BlackRock rolled out a new line of lower-fee “core” funds to combat low-fee funds from Vanguard and Charles Schwab Corp.

BlackRock’s new line grabbed about one-quarter of all customer inflows to its ETFs since being announced, Morningstar said.

Among other ETF managers, Invesco’s PowerShares unit placed fourth with $8 billion of inflows and bond giant Pimco ranked fifth with $5 billion. The Pimco Total Return ETF , an actively managed fund run by Bill Gross, was the most successful new fund of 2012, bringing in almost $4 billion.

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First Asset sponsors ETF Insights as part of a commercial agreement with Postmedia and is responsible for selecting the authors whose work appears here. Postmedia has no involvement in the creation of this content.

First Asset sponsors ETF Insights as part of a commercial agreement with Postmedia and is responsible for selecting the authors whose work appears here. Postmedia has no involvement in the creation of this content.

First Asset sponsors ETF Insights as part of a commercial agreement with Postmedia and is responsible for selecting the authors whose work appears here. Postmedia has no involvement in the creation of this content.

First Asset sponsors ETF Insights as part of a commercial agreement with Postmedia and is responsible for selecting the authors whose work appears here. Postmedia has no involvement in the creation of this content.